Sperry: Pinch off caladium flowers to keep plants looking their best

Dear Neil: I have several large pots of caladiums on my patio. The plants are starting to flower. Someone suggested I pick the flowers off before they open. Is that good advice?

Answer: Yes. Some plants’ flowers (coleus, lambs ear, santolina and caladiums as examples) aren’t very showy. They can actually cause the plants to become rather ragged looking and should be pruned or pinched off before they develop.

Dear Neil: I have a patch of this weed growing in my bermuda lawn. What is it, and what can I use to control it?

Answer: You have a healthy dose of johnsongrass. It’s a perennial weed with strong roots and large rhizomes. Luckily, it does not do well when mowed closely. Maintain your bermuda turf at 1¼ inch, and the johnsongrass should thin away over the next couple of months. With the removal of MSMA from the weed control market, we’re left with no effective control that will kill grassy weeds without killing bermuda.

Dear Neil: My husband ordered tomato seeds this past winter. They have grown into nice plants, but so far we have had only three or four blooms and only three small tomatoes. What is wrong?

Answer: When a tomato plant grows well but doesn’t bloom, it’s usually due to insufficient sunlight. They require full sunlight all day long to reach maximum productivity. When a plant blooms but doesn’t set fruit, that’s due to a lack of pollination. Tomato flowers are self-pollinating. That means that the pollen that fertilizes the flower is produced within the same flower (not transferred by bees). It requires mechanical agitation (wind or vibration). If you get more flowers, try thumping the flower clusters with your fingernail every couple of days to jar the pollen. Finally, only small- and medium-sized varieties will set well in the heat of a Texas summertime. Large varieties like Big Boy and Beefsteak quit setting when daytime temperatures climb beyond 90 degrees.

Dear Neil: I have a rental house with a 3-year-old ash tree in the front yard. My renters have Christmas lights on the trunk and limbs about every 3 inches. Should I ask them to remove them? Will they damage the tree?

Answer: Wiring, if it wraps tightly around a tree’s limbs or trunk, can girdle that part of the tree and cut off the flow of nutrients and water to the extremities beyond that point. However, it has to encircle the branch entirely, and it has to be constricting. If neither is yet an issue, you probably don’t need to worry.

Dear Neil: I need a new shade tree, but I really don’t want to wait 25 years for it to grow. What suggestions could you give me for a fast-growing type that won’t have loads of problems?

Answer: That’s the most common question nurserymen get regarding shade trees. Unfortunately, every fast-growing tree has some form of serious problem. Many of the speedy trees have multiple problems. Stick with trees with more moderate rates of growth. Best investments, for quality, reasonable speed of growth, good looks and durability, include live oak, red oak, chinquapin oak, bur oak, Chinese pistachio, cedar elm and pecan. You’ll be glad you made the decision to use one of these, or any other equally suitable tree. Let your nurseryman give you more precise ideas to fill your needs.

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